Workers place the Ten Commandments monument in its new home at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, just down the street from the state Capitol, in Oklahoma City, early Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015. The... (Sue Ogrocki)

(Newser)
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A granite monument of the Ten Commandments that has sparked controversy since its installation on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds was being removed Monday and will be transported to a private conservative think tank for storage. In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court decided that the display violates a state constitutional prohibition on the use of public property to support "any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion." The state is paying about $4,700 to have the monument removed. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol increased security around the monument prior to its removal, which took place under cover of darkness to keep protesters from demonstrating while heavy equipment was being used to detach the two-ton monument from its base.

Originally authorized by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2009, the privately funded monument has been a lightning rod for controversy since it was erected in 2012, prompting a lawsuit from Bruce Prescott, a Baptist minister who complained it violated the state constitution. "I'm not opposed to the Ten Commandments," he said Monday. "I'm just opposed to it being on public property." The original monument was smashed into pieces last year when someone drove a car across the Capitol lawn and crashed into it. A new monument was erected in January. Conservative legislators are hoping to change the state constitution to allow the monument to be reinstated.

What's WRONG with the OKSC! Did they not KNOW THIS! That Separation of Church and State isn't in the Constitution!!! That the Constitution is based on the Ten Commandments!! Well... DUH! OKSC! There ya go ALL!!.

U8B8

Oct 8, 2015 6:45 AM CDT

atheism makes the simpleminded feel secure

U8B8

Oct 8, 2015 6:41 AM CDT

atheists are too simple minded to be able to grasp abstract concepts. they actually believe that if they are unable to perceive something with their physical sense's that it cannot exist they attempt to enforce their limited view on everyone else, while they are no more able to prove their assertions than the man in the moon no one can either prove or disprove the existence or lack of existence of God, but simple minded atheists take this as proof of their assertions, they present their lack of comprehension as proof, when in actuality all it proves is that they are unable to think on a higher level they try to keep everyone at their level, usually becoming rabidly abusive towards anyone who thinks at a higher level